The Syrian Ministry of Energy seeks over $30 billion for rehabilitating the oil, mineral, electricity, and water sectors.
Electricity demands urgent attention, needing $10 billion for rebuilding generation plants, transmission lines, and metering systems.
Sanctions lifted in June 2025 have allowed Syria to re-enter the global market, with the first crude shipment in 14 years.
Major agreements include a $7 billion (£5.7 billion) power generation project with Qatar’s UCC Holding and an international consortium for building eight new plants.
Ahmed Sleiman, the ministry’s finance director, says, “Many meetings have taken place, and we hope that these investments will materialise very soon.”
Syria is seeking more than $30 billion to fully rehabilitate the country’s oil, mineral, electricity and water sectors, a senior official has said.
Ahmed Sleiman, director of communications for the Ministry of Energy, said the electricity sector alone demands urgent attention, requiring an estimated $10 billion.
“The electricity sector needs a complete overhaul, including transmission lines, distribution lines, meter installations, and power generation plants,” he told The National during the Adipec annual global energy summit.
Syria’s delegation included Minister of Energy Mohammed Al Bashir, who was appointed in March. A former prime minister of the country, Mr Al Bashir met regional and global leaders to discuss partnerships and investment opportunities.
The delegation held a round table this week with industry leaders from the UAE, Saudi Arabia, Qatar, the US and Europe at The Future of Energy in Syria event in Abu Dhabi, to promote greater co-operation.
“We met with several companies, including Emirati, international, and local firms. All of them expressed their readiness to invest in Syria,” Mr Sleiman said.
“The discussions focused on infrastructure maintenance and development in the oil and electricity sectors, as well as water infrastructure.”
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New targets
Syria’s electricity infrastructure was severely damaged over the past 14 years of civil war resulting in degraded grids, worn-out plants and extensive fuel shortages.
More than 70 per cent of power plants and transmission lines have sustained significant damage, and the national grid capacity has shrunk by more than 75 per cent, leaving many Syrians without reliable electricity, according to a UN Development Programme report in February.
This had previously left about 88.4 per cent of Syrians with access to some level of electricity according to the latest reliable figures collated by the World Bank in 2023.
Production of oil and gas, which accounted for a fourth of government revenue, declined significantly since the onset of the conflict in 2011, causing severe deficits, according to the US Energy Information Administration (EIA).
Syria, formerly the eastern Mediterranean’s leading oil and natural gas producer, was barred from exporting oil and gas under US sanctions that took effect in April 2011.
Damascus was no longer to able to export its 380,000 barrels per day of oil. Current crude production is at about 120,000 bpd, according to the Syrian ministry.
Syria also used to export 316 million cubic feet per day cf/d (8.9 million cubic metres per day) of natural gas. It now produces about 7 million cm/d according to the ministry.
“Our target is 22 million cm/d [in order] to supply power turbines with 100 per cent of the required power,” Mr Sleiman said.
The country also aims to return to its pre-war levels of oil production.
“Syria has more than 2,500 wells that need rehabilitation to bring production back to [more than] 400,000 bpd,” said Manaf Arnous, chief executive of UAE-based oil field services company Damson Energy.
Since sanctions on Syria were formally lifted by the US in June, a move that took effect in July of this year, the country has intensified efforts to return to the global market.
In September, the country exported its first officially recognised crude consignment in 14 years, shipping 600,000 barrels of heavy crude from the historic port of Tartus.
Syria’s geographic position once made it a vital energy crossroads between Europe and the east.
The country received gas through the Arab Gas Pipeline (AGP), and oil through the now defunct Kirkuk–Baniyas pipeline, which moved crude from Iraq’s Kurdistan region.
“Syria plans to revive these two important pipelines,” Mr Sleiman told The National about the latter two pipelines that have been out of commission since 2003 and the 1980s respectively.
“There have been several discussions regarding the Arab Gas Pipeline, but so far nothing is clear about it,” said .
In March, Qatar pledged to supply natural gas to Syria through Jordan, using the Arab Gas pipeline.
“We are currently working on the [AGP] pipeline connecting Jordan and Syria. This pipeline is functioning well, and we imported natural gas through it,” Mr Sleiman said.
“We are now maintaining and fully upgrading it within Syria. It has also been connected to the Republic of Turkey.”
Turkey began supplying gas to Syria through a swap agreement with Azerbaijan from August 2. Ankara said it would supply about 6 million cm/d of gas in a deal financed by Doha.
Challenges Ahead
The gap in raising the $30 billion required to meet Syria’s energy rehabilitation remains wide.
A $146 million grant issued by the World Bank in June intends to help Damascus restore affordable, reliable, electricity to support economic recovery.
It aims to focus on the rehabilitation of high-voltage lines and strengthen grid reliability under the World Bank’s Syria Emergency Electricity Project (SEEP). By linking to existing 400 kV lines connecting Syria with Jordan and Turkey, the project will be sufficient to make the grid connection “will be sufficient” to restore power, said Mr Sleiman.
Yet the World Bank grant, while a positive step, is modest compared to the tens of billions envisaged by the ministry, and the implementation is not immediate according to the senior official.
“Procedures for this grant are somewhat lengthy,” he said, and in the meantime they are looking for other partners and working with neighbours to bring in capital and connectivity.
Mr Sleiman voiced confidence that investments lie in the country’s near future.
“Many meetings have taken place, and we hope that these investments will materialise very soon and benefit our people in Syria.”
He said discussions included firms such as US-based SLB, Halliburton, Baker Hughes, Hunting Energy, and UK-based GulfSand Petroleum. Others were Chevron, BP, TotalEnergies and Shell.
UAE-based companies represented included Damson Energy, Dragon Oil (Enoc), Crescent Petroleum, Taqa and Petromal.
Regional participants included Saudi Arabia’s Aquapower and Saudi Energy, alongside Doha Delta Wellhead of Qatar and Petroleum Barrel.
Mr Sleiman said these discussions were “fruitful” and expressed optimism that the engagements would soon lead to tangible partnerships.
“Whether it’s a day, a month or even next year, the visits from these companies will begin,” said Mr Suleiman.
He spoke against the backdrop of a flurry of high-profile deals in Syria’s energy sector. In late May 2025, the Syrian government signed a memorandum of understanding with a consortium led by Qatar’s UCC Holding to develop major power generation projects worth approximately $7 billion. The agreement covers building four combined-cycle gas turbine power plants with a total capacity of 4,000 megawatts, plus a 1,000-megawatt solar plant in southern Syria.
On Thursday, Syria’s Ministry of Energy signed final concession agreements with an international consortium led by Urbacon Holding to build and operate eight new power plants totaling 5,000MW. The deal, involving partners from Turkey and the US, marks a key step in rebuilding Syria’s power infrastructure after years of decline.
Mr Sleiman said that investors from this week’s discussions have been invited to Syria “to see the situation on the ground, and God willing, things will be good.”
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